Usha: “Nicolas Flamel = ‘cougar’”

Hi All:

 

It's my pleasure to offer you an annotated transcript of my notes from our discussion at Ri Ra in Bethesda last evening. Everyone feel free to comment on these. Another bit of housekeeping for the future: let's hyperlink as much as we can. Special thanks to Max and Usha for doing so (tastefully) where it adds to things.

My notes:

 

06082009

Determinism/Libertarian Agency

-Sorting Hat: determiner or dialoguer? All of us noticed that the Sorting Hat seemed to determine the first-years, but in retrospect—especially in Chamber of Secrets, it seems that the Hat relied more on the [moral?] decision making of the student in helping shape his/her future.

-(Later) Prophecies about Harry Let's discuss this one, but let's do it as the prophecies come into play so that we don't ruin the plot for first-time readers in our midst.

-Max: tension between telos and status quo. Max noted the maladjustedness (yes, I sometimes make up words: it saves time) of the characters as first-years immersed in a big, wide world of magic for which they've apparently got talent, but in which they've a lot to learn. This theme recurred throughout our discussing in other forms as well (see below).

Parseltongue

-Brazilian snake representative of the reader in fantasy: reader maladjusted in our world; fantasy is a way of dealing with this maladjustedness.

Fear of Death/Quest for Immortality

    -Voldemort on a quest for immortality (Voldemort = "turning from death")

-Quality v. quantity of life This is a major discussion in the U.S. right now, with healthy dieting and a lot of other elements coming into play.

The Malfoys (Malfoy = "bad faith")

    -Caricatures? Are the Malfoys also "bad foils"?

    -Confused, evil, both or neither?

        -What is "evil" in Rowling's world, and how does it relate to evil in our own?

-Death Eaters cf. Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning If you've not read Browning's work on the everyday person's contribution to the final solution in Germany during WWII, it's a poignant, sobering, and slightly disturbing look at the development of human evil, seemingly out of nowhere.

-Aaron: Corruptio optima pessima as an explanation for the Malfoys The medieval doctrine, corruptio optima pessima ("nothing worse than the best gone wrong") may offer some explanatory power with respect to the Malfoy family: they're rich, powerful and respectable, but their penchant toward order leads them to throw in their lot with Voldemort, and in so doing to forsake any belief they may have had in the dignity and equality of their fellow wizards, regardless of bloodlines.

Lukacs & Textual Depth

    -Aaron: Textual depth achieved by mere mention of a large number of wizard book titles

    -Usha: cf. Lukacs, "The Historical Novel," in McKeon

Educational Philosophy/Pedagogy

    -Pedagogy-as-subversion a major theme in Rowling's works

        -Max: If literature is education, then fantasy is subversive as well.

        -Is subversion of reality one of fantasy's distinguishing characteristics?

Queer Theory

-Usha: Nicolas Flamel = 'cougar' (219) Basically, the thought went that if Dumbledore is gay (as Rowling so controversially stated), and if he and Nicolas Flamel were 'partners' in that sense rather than in the 'collaborators' sense (Sorcerer's Stone 219), then Nicolas Flamel, being several hundred years older than Dumbledore, is a real 'cougar.' Nevermind. Guess you had to be there.

 

All in all, I'm really excited to see what's going up on this blog, and to hear the comments that we heard last night. There has been a lot of meaningful contribution to the discussion, to which I intend to add my own research very soon. I'm working on J.K. Rowling's use of ancient religion, including onomastics rooted in Classical mythology. I'm also taking a particular interest in curses: their historical uses, what occasioned them, and their purposes.

I hope you're all enjoying this reading, and that you're both entertained and challenged by Rowling's ability as an author.

 

ALong